This page is one of several pages which are based on articles in our book entitled Royal Leamington Spa, A History in 100 Buildings which was published in 2018 and is no longer in print.
The Bowling Green Inn, along with the Dog Inn (see article), was one of the original alehouses of the village of Leamington Priors. They were situated opposite each other across what is now the High Street (then London Road).
There were two successive Bowling Green Inns in Church Street (then Church Lane) with the earliest in 1768, occupying a site between Bath and Church Streets, close to the High Street. T. B. Dudley wrote “Unfortunately, no definite details are preserved of its form and arrangements, but it may be taken for granted that it was an ordinary country way-side public house having at its back, in lieu of the customary orchard, a bowling green reaching as far as the present Regent Place. It had a low roof and the assembly room in which fashionable visitors were accustomed to meet and make merry, was about 15 feet wide and that generally it was small and comfortable”.
In 1810 George Morley wrote “It is recorded that the Bowling Green was shut out from the public gaze by a thick set hedge said to have been 10 to 12 feet high, intersected by tall elms. An open market was held on the south east side of the pub. The first market was held there in May 1813.
Morley further writes that “. . . in the 1820’s, on the east side of Bath Street there were no houses from the High Street to Regent Place, that portion being covered with gardens belonging to the Bowling Green Inn, and skirting Bath Street with luxuriant trees”. In 1824 a balloon took off from the bowling green at the pub.
Unfortunately in 1828, the then licensee, Joseph Parsons, was ordered to sell all his stock, household furniture, general and other effects. This would include over 1,000 gallons of fine ale, porter and cider. The next year, Joseph Parsons was declared bankrupt (a seemingly common fate of licensees!). The Inn was taken over by an administrator and in 1830 advertised ‘for let’ as The Bowling Green and Commercial Inn. The assignees of Joseph Parsons then renamed the pub as The Union and Commercial Inn and attempted to urgently auction it off together with a piece of front land in August 1830. However, although it was sold off, the new owners decided to demolish it as it ceased to exist in 1830.
In the meantime and commencing in 1825, a ‘new’ Bowling Green Inn had been built on the opposite side of Church Street upon land purchased from Edward Treadgold. This inn consisted of five superior sitting rooms, a spacious bar, fourteen bedrooms, kitchen, cellars, stabling and coach houses. It was licensed to George Dickenson 1827-1830 and then John Burridge 1832-1854. In 1846 the address was No 23 Church Street.
By 1856 the Bowling Green Inn had become the Guernsey Commercial Inn managed by Misses Eliza and Emma Ann Gill. The name ‘Guernsey’ probably came from the fact that the first son of the Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Aylesford, was titled Lord Guernsey. By 1860 the premises were advertised ‘to let’ and were acquired by Charles Liebenrood, whose father, George, was at the time, proprietor of the Royal Leamington Spa Courier.
In 1862, Charles opened a concert room/music hall at the hotel for the gentlemen of Leamington to enjoy performances of vocal and instrumental music. However the local competition proved too fierce for Charles and he relinquished the tenancy in 1863 to a Mr Payne. Following on from Mr Payne, a Mrs Meeks reopened the Guernsey as a Temperance Hotel during the years 1866-1868. It then had several changes of name before the site became known as the Guernsey Garage which opened on Saturday 31st March 1959. The site is occupied in 2018 by a block of residences named Chapel Cross.
Bowling Green Inn sign 2016, Michael Jeffs
Note:- In 2018 there is a third Bowling Green Inn. This pub is in New Street and was opened in 1867. It is still operating as a pub and although it claims to be the oldest pub in Leamington, this is in name only!
Acknowledgements – The Pubs of Royal Leamington Spa
Michael Pearson, April 2018